I found out about the opportunity to meet her on the 13th when I saw Cross tweet about it. I was excited about it, because I really enjoy the books I've read of hers.
It was kind of a short notice, but I didn't have anything other than homework and laundry planned for the weekend anyway, so meeting her would surely be the highlight of my weekend.
The Youth Literature Festival was held at the IHotel and Conference Center in Champaign. Luckily for me, I go to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, so it would be easy to get there. The festival is actually ran by U of I's College of Education, which is probably why it was pretty close to campus.
Although it was ran by the university, it was a youth literature festival, so a lot of the attendees were parents and their kids. I was one of the only college students there who wasn't working, which Julie and I briefly discussed.
There were lots of mini events going on at the festival, like an author panel and a few talks/lectures, but the only thing I wanted to go to was the book signing. Also, since the festival was intended for kids, I didn't recognize many of the authors there.
